Sunday, April 02, 2006

Santo Subito!

I plan to post my tribute to Our Beloved Papa later tonight. We have had quite the hectic weekend.

Please visit Moneybags' blog for a beautiful 4 part series on Pope John Paul II.__________________________________________________________________

There are so many wonderful tributes to our Beloved Karol that I am not sure I can even begin to write anything nearly as good. But I will post my thoughts because he was such a special person and deserves all that can be said about him.

"Be Not Afraid!" That was the motto I will most remember my beloved Holy Father for. And he lived it until the very end of his life. He was an example of how to live holiness each and every day. He showed us how to pray without ceasing, to make our very lives a prayer.

From the time he was a very young boy, our dear John Paul was called to a life of extreme holiness. Through all of the apparent tragedy in his life, his mother's death, then his brother's, and finally his father's, he was left an orphan. Living through the Nazi occupation of Poland, surviving that which seemed impossible to survive. Determined to become a priest during a time when to be found out could have meant his life. All the while, the hand of God was upon him, calling him to the greatest vocation of all, the Vicar of Christ.

He was never afraid to live as God called him to. He was never alone as he continually called upon our Heavenly Mother to be with him. He was his absolute strongest when he was physically his weakest. He was a force of peace, hope and love that changed the face of humanity for all time.

He emptied himself out to the world the way that Christ emptied himself for all of us. He was an example of true devotion until the very end.

I had hoped to visit Rome while he was still amoung us, but that was not to be. Thankfully, Pope John Paul left us with many wonderful resources to draw on and learn from for the rest of our lives. The Encyclicals, homilies,Books, and Poems that we can study for years to come which will continue to impact our Church for quite some time.

He was a hero to many people, including me. I pray that he is resting well in the arms of our Lord, but I know that he is probably too busy praying for all of us still here on earth.

He was able to accomplish so much in his 80 years not because he was a super hero, but rather because he had a profound faith, a sincere and complete devotion to our blessed mother, and a true love of Christ.